Offshore

Ireland's offshore wind development has been boosted by the European Commission's decision to prioritize an Ireland-UK interconnector program and national regulatory issues must now be resolved to ensure construction, industry experts said.

Offshore project developers face a limited supply of vessels capable of installing new higher capacity turbines in deeper waters until the arrival from around 2018 of a new generation of purpose-built installation vessels, according to Wind Energy Update’s Offshore Foundations and Supporting Structures Report 2015.

The UK's removal of Climate Change Levy (CCL) exemptions for renewable energy projects puts further pressure on developers to improve on the latest record-low offtake prices of GBP114-119/MWh through large scale deployment of the most advanced turbine and grid technology.

The growing size of offshore wind farms provides greater scope for data optimisation during Operations and Maintenance, while software solutions can also help mitigate risk during the development phase, Marcus Ihle, Senior Consultant at Outsmart, said.